It's Me!

About Me

I'm 24. I was born 3 months early. I've been a vegetarian since birth, and I love Harry Potter, Disney, taking pictures, and baking. College graduate, studied journalism.
I work at Disney World in Florida; I've worked in Fantasyland Attractions, as a Character Attendant, and now am a Guest Relations Hostess. I love my job.
I've met President Obama, Daniel Radcliffe, President Clinton, Ricky Ullman, and Betty White!

Radcliffe: Umm, yes! I’m sure I have. I don’t know if it was tea but I certainly had dinner with her. I’m sure I’ve had Diet Coke with her in this room. So yes, I’ve had what qualifies as tea with JK.

Watson: I haven’t had tea with JK. I’ve had orange juice with JK. We had a nice chat in my dressing room and we went through a period where we were emailing, which was nice.

Grint: Well, kind of. She comes to visit every year. I saw her once at the Edinburgh Film Festival and I actually caught fire. This kind of drink thing made my T-shirt catch fire! Did she put it out? No, someone else did but she was there!

Things I want to do in France:
Visit Versailles!
Climb the 300-some steps at Notre Dame, and sing a little 'Hunchback of Notre Dame' on the way up. Also, pose by a gargoyle.
Have a competent conversation, completely in French
Take a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower
Go dancing in a French club
Go shopping for a new dress ("Oh, this? I got in Paris")
Walk along the Seine
Visit a boulangerie (or several)
Visit a patisserie (or several)
Survive on baguettes, pan au choclat, red wine, and cheese
Kiss a handsome Frenchman
Pretend I'm going to Disneyland Paris
Drink cafe au lait in a French cafe and eat a crepe

...Basically, my trip to France and the United Kingdom is going to be food-based, castle-wandering, and royalty-filled.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Emma Watson tries to explain 'Disney Princesses' to Daniel Radcliffe a few years ago (he's now 22, not 18), during a video chat, which was fortunately taped. Love it!

I love this. I love it, love it! When I turned 21, one of my favorite professors turned up to my birthday party in Mickey Mouse ears because she knew I was going to work at Disney World later that year.

Daniel Radcliffe: "I will miss getting to do some of the stuff I get to do as Harry," he said. "I'm not naturally an action hero so it's kind of a gift for a young actor. I got to do a 40 foot free-fall when I was 14! I got to burst out of the water surrounded by a ring of fire! I will never get to do that again."

Jason Isaac's My London
22 Jul 2011 Home is…
I've had a home in Queen's Park for 26 years. My wife Emma and I met at drama school in Swiss Cottage in the late 1980s and have lived within a few miles of the Finchley Road ever since.

What's the first thing you do when you arrive back in London?
Get on the Tube or the bus and thank God we have a public transport system that works. In LA all life starts with a car journey in hideous traffic.

What's the most romantic thing someone's done for you?
On my birthday years ago, my wife arranged a boat ride down the Thames that took us to a restaurant and then to a hotel in Chelsea Wharf.

How would you like the opening line of your obituary to read?
Jason Isaacs - full-time dad, sometime actor and trophy husband - has gone missing under mysterious circumstances.

Which is your favourite club?The exclusive British actors' I-was-in-Harry-Potter-and-you-weren't society, of which I am a smug member.

What are your biggest extravagances?
Computers and chai lattes.

What would you do as Mayor of London for the day?
If I was actually Boris Johnson, I might cut my hair and apologise for being so boorishly Neanderthal.

Which animal would you most like to be?
A rat: I like company, am naturally messy and will eat almost anything.

What do you most like wearing?
Nothing - I must remember to draw the curtains.

Have you ever had a run-in with the London police?
Er... yes, back in my misspent youth. But they were also brilliant when I had a stalker for nearly a decade.

At the London press conference for the series' last installment, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, British actor Ralph Fiennes - who has portrayed Voldemort since the first movie in 2001 - revealed some juicy behind-the- scenes secrets.

Fiennes, 48, explained conspiratorially: "It was an irritating costume to wear. It was too long and, sometimes, I would trip over it...The gusset of the tights kept dropping between my thighs, and this made it very hard to walk with any kind of dignity."

Thus, a garter belt was employed to solve the problem.

"Sometimes, when the stunt team got too macho, I would tease them with my inner thigh," the actor added.

Gambon, 70, joked that while both he and Fiennes had taken "wand lessons" under the guidance of a male dancer, his resulting actions were certainly "more camp" than his colleague's.

Coltrane, 61, spoke about how Hagrid - the loveable giant of a caretaker - was worlds apart from his previous roles,which had him playing everything from "gangsters to prostitutes, transvestites and murderers". "The great thing about playing Hagrid is that he is a thoroughly good man... It's the first time I've done that," he said with a smile.

(CBS News) Daniel Radcliffe said the first time that he felt part of the audience was during the second film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. "It wasn't that I was moved because of nostalgia or my personal connection with the series, the filming of it -- it was sadness because I was moved by the film."The star called the series is "incredibly compelling."

"You want to know the truth of it all," he said. "That what's so good about J.K. Rowling's writing, is that no characters were sacred. I think that's what made it so good. I was quite keen for Harry to die. I couldn't see of another way of the series ending. That's why I don't write them and she does. She's more imaginative than I am."

Radcliffe said he doesn't plan to watch any of the films over again."I probably won't watch any of the other ones until I have kids. I can sit them down and start the whole thing over with them."

Potter says he doesn't think he grew up on camera."I regard myself as having grown up on sets and then at home," he said. "I still did all my embarrassing teenage moments behind closed doors, thankfully, so the world wasn't privy to them, luckily."

He said, "I just wanted to say thank-you to everybody, but not just thank-you, because in a very real sense, I do love them in the way that you love a family, and have been there to support you every day for 10 years."

Radcliffe continued, "One of the French King Louis, I'm not sure which one, since I lose track after a certain point -- his last word were, he turned to all the people around him and said, 'Why are you crying, did you imagine I was immortal?' It's that same thing; it's like it had to end sometime, and we may as well celebrate it instead of getting too sad."

"People have an image of actors or anyone that is in the public eye that, when you meet them, that they are going horrible or very intimidating. I don't think I'm any of those things. I consider myself very, very boring and very, very normal. I guess that would be the thing that surprises people the most, is that there is not much to me that is very surprising."

Do you like living in New York City?
Daniel Radcliffe: Yes. I miss home, but as another place to live, it’s absolutely wonderful and the people are very friendly and it’s very easy for me to walk around here. I think I’ve only had two run-ins with paparazzi in the last five months. That’s been very light. It’s a pretty easy place to live really. And doing the show is fun as well. It means you get in with a set of people and you establish new friendships in there like I did with Equus.

What’s been your key to keeping your body and mind focused?
Dan: In terms of my mindset, reading or just going and walking for a few hours and stuff like that to totally take me out of the more hectic side of my life, I find that’s good. And just doing something else during the day that stimulates your mind so that when you go into the show in the evening, it’s not all that you’ve thought about all day and the only thing you’ve done.

Have you met the future Mrs. Radcliffe?
Dan: [Pauses] I don’t know, maybe. The person I’m with at the moment is wonderful. Unfortunately, she’s back at home. I miss my girlfriend very much, but that’s OK. She’s working on a film at the moment.

Is she an actress?
Dan: Oh God no! That would be insane. She works on the crew. She’s great. I’ve been seeing my girlfriend for nine months now, and when you get the right feeling about someone, you go, “You’re very very cool, and I really am very happy around you.” That’s a nice feeling.

Is this the first time you’ve had that feeling with anybody?
Dan: Yeah, I think it is. To have found this, certainly.

At what point did you start preparing for your post-Potter life? A couple of years back?
Dan: It was more than that probably even. My agent and I always felt it was important that I should be seen to be doing other things while Harry Potter was going on, to ease that transition afterward. If you spend 10 years doing one series of films, and then you suddenly go, “Look, and I’m doing this!” it’s quite a jump for people. Whereas if, over the course of those 10 years, you go off in between films and do other stuff, whether it’s a film that doesn’t get seen by many people like December Boys or a play that attracts quite a lot of attention like Equus, there’s an awareness that you’re out there doing other stuff and you want to do other stuff. When it comes to this point where we are moving on, its going to be a lot easier for people to accept that transition.

Do you feel you’ve made a home for yourself over here, or will you go back to London?
Dan: I would want to go back to London. I miss my home, I miss everyone there, I miss my girlfriend. I’ve got to get back there for at least a little bit. One of the films I might be doing might be here next year, so I definitely want to have some time at home next year. [Laughs]

In terms of fan experiences, is it nutty both here and in England?
Dan: Not so much in England, but over here it can get crazy sometimes. And it does in England sometimes, but not so much when I’m walking around. New York is a very city to walk around, but just very occasionally it has the element of, if I’m in a theater or somewhere public, it can go crazy very quickly. It rarely does but there’s always an awareness that it could. If the wrong person sees you and just starts screaming, then it can go slightly wild. [Laughs]

You’re one of a select group of people in this world who can cause an instant, Beatles-like riot. Is there anybody you’re able to talk about that with?
Dan: It’s interesting because the people who have had the same experience are the people you don’t talk to about it. You both know, you’ve both been there and you know what it’s like and how odd it is. Everyone has their own ways of dealing with it and putting it into perspective, but there’s a recognition. It would be hard to explain. If I was to see Rob Pattinson, there would be a knowledge that we both know what it’s like and we don’t really talk about it because our opinions on it are quite dull. [Laughs] There’s an acknowledgement of “I know what you’re talking about,” but I’m sure we wouldn’t dwell on it.

Now that you’re on your second production, have you figured out why so many people want to get to Hollywood rather than stay on Broadway?
Dan: Because they want to be famous — to an extent, I think. I’d say there are some people that film is something they’re really interested in and love and want to do, but there’s also a lot of people who think fame is what they want. I don’t think this applies to anyone I know or anyone I’ve worked with, but people who think they want to be an actor actually just want to be famous a lot of the time. If that’s your end goal, you will get nowhere ultimately. Because then, once you do achieve that fame, it doesn’t matter to you what you do because you’ve got it. Once you’re a known person and you just want all the perks of being a known person, then that’s when the work will start to suffer and your attention drifts on to other things and parties and stuff like that. You never really cared about the work to begin with, I suppose.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Daniel Radcliffe at 11:
Interviewer: How did you learn you had been cast?
DR: I was sitting in the bath, and I heard the phone ring, and I heard my dad go downstairs, pick it up, and say, 'Hello, David.' David Heyman, the producer, was the only David we knew at the time. So I knew it was him, but I thought it was going to be a let-down phone call to tell me I hadn't got the part. But my dad then came up and told me. I just sat there for a while, and then I started to cry. Then I woke up at 2 a.m. and thought it was a dream.

Is it true that you were a practical joker on the set?
DR: There was this one time when it was getting on to Halloween. I'd gone out and bought these blood capsules, vampire things. You put them in your mouth and chew them, and you let the blood dribble down your chin. I went to the makeup bus, and they have these steel steps outside. I whacked them really hard with my hand to make it sound like I'd fallen. Then I rushed in and spit blood all over the floor. If David Heyman had been there at the time, I think he may have died.

And I changed the language on Robbie Coltrane's phone to Turkish.
[Of this prank, Coltrane, who plays Hogwarts gameskeeper Hagrid in the series, recalled: "I have a Motorola, and it has 17 languages in it, and the wee bugger went into it and found Turkish and changed it. So you'd think [to fix it] you could just go into 'language change,' but of course to go into 'language change,' you have to know the Turkish for 'language change.' So we had to phone-up one of the makeup guys had married a Turkish girl. It was like an episode of 'Fawlty Towers.' At the time, it was very funny."]

What did you think of the completed film?
DR: Again I was speechless. And again I cried. But I'm not a wimp. Don't let that mislead you.

Is the attention from press and fans a downside?
DR: No, this is actually one of the coolest bits. If I had to pick one, it's writing the autographs. My name is too long. I'm going to try to work on it to get a quicker signature. I do enjoy [being recognized]. My teacher always said I was an attention seeker.

How many reporters have you talked to recently?
Emma Watson, age 9: Oh my God.
Rupert Grint, age 11: I've lost count. About three million.

Do they all ask the same questions?
RG: Yeah, but it's cool.
EW: They come up with exactly the same questions, and you can say exactly the same answers. So you don't have to think. You can just stand there like a broken record.

What has been the biggest perk?
RG: What does perk mean?
EW: I'd say going to different places. We went to loads of different locations, which was really fun. We met interesting people. And we had really good co-stars, i.e., Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Zoe Wanamaker, Julie Walters. It was just a great cast.
RG: For me, probably the sweets.
EW: I make this long, sobby speech, and he says, 'Sweets.'

If you could have a magical power in real life, what would it be?
DR: Probably invisibility. Then I could sneak into rock concerts and films.
EW: I think I'd make myself invisible so I could go into movies for over-15s.
RG: Yeah, I'd be invisible so I could sneak out of detention.

You're about to start filming the next movie, 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.' What can you reveal about it?
RG: It's going to be fun. I can't wait to cough up slugs.

10 years later, two 11 year olds asked these questions:

Daniel RadcliffeQ. Do you like the movies being pretty much all about you? Did you like all of the attention?
A. Well, yes, I am a massive egomaniac. ... Do I like it all being about me? Well, I can’t really say ‘no’ … I suppose it’s a nice feeling to know that you’re an important person on the set. But to be honest with you, I think any actor that views actors as the most important people on the set are so deluded, because there are literally millions of actors all over the world. There are many more actors in the world than there are Steadicam (camera) operators, so we are, logically speaking, a lot more expendable. So no, I don’t say I like it all being about me. It’s just the way it was. I was just the one that looked the most like Harry when they were auditioning people.

Q. Are you like your character in a lot of ways?
A. It was funny, when my mum read the sixth book, she said, “It’s weird. It’s sort of like Jo (“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling) does sort of know you a bit now. ... When Harry argues and he gets on the defensive, he becomes really irritating like you do.” So I think in that way, when we’re on the defensive, we both tend to get more belligerent. ... Other than that, we’ve both got a lot of curiosity. We both put a lot of value in our friends. I think we’ve both got quite the sense of humor.

Q. Is it hard for you to end the series, because most of your acting career has been as Harry?
A. Having watched these amazing actors for 10 years, having learned so much, it’s now kind of time. My education is complete, and it’s now time for me sort of to be released in the wild and see how I function in the real world.

Emma WatsonQ. Does it get annoying when the main characters are boys and you are the only girl?
A. When I was younger, I did struggle. I wished for a girl on set a lot, actually. There are times when I did feel really left out.

Q. Because you bossed Daniel and Rupert around in the movies, did you ever do it accidentally in real life?
A. Oh, all the time, all the time! Definitely. They’ll tell you that I definitely bossed them around at times. Sometimes, I accidentally found myself directing, giving them direction on a scene that we’re doing together. I’d have to catch myself, because I’m like, that really isn’t my job. I really shouldn’t be telling them that.

Q. You have a cat in the movie. Do you like cats in real life?
A. I love cats. I’m such a cat person. I actually miss my cats so much. I grew up around them...Being around cats, it really calms me down.

Q. Do you wish you were your character? Do you wish you were magical and could get away from the real world?
A. These questions are brilliant. I don’t know, actually. Having watched this last movie, the magical world is pretty dark. It seems quite scary. I don’t know whether it would be fun. Do I wish I was my character? No. I’m pretty happy being Emma. I’m pretty content as Emma.

Tom FeltonQ. Is it hard for you to be nice in the real world when you’re so mean in the films?
A. I think it actually makes me slightly nicer. I think I get to vent my day-to-day frustrations and annoyances through this Hitler-like child, and by doing so, it seems to be quite therapeutic. And hopefully, I’m a slightly friendlier soul.

Q. Are you a bit like your character in a way (no offense)?
A. I’m glad they said no offense, because I get a lot of genuine journalists saying, “How similar are you to your character?” ... God, I hope I’m not anything even remotely close, other than in the way we look. I think we’re polar opposites. I like to think of myself as a fairly un-Draco-esque character.